The digital skills gap is at crisis point, and the lack of digital talent is impacting on organisations' productivity and bottom line. Competition is fierce as businesses struggle to find the right talent. 

Europe for example is in the midst of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" -- a time of rapid technological, economic and societal change that has seen the average "skills shelf life" drop to just five years. The continent is struggling to keep up with this technology-led revolution, as a recent European Commission conference revealed that 44 percent of the adult population in Europe have low levels or no digital skills at all. An additional 37 percent of the European workforce do not even have basic digital skills and many companies lack the more advanced specialized skills needed to prepare for this future. - Why Europe Is Facing a Digital Skills Crisis

We need to shift our perspective on investment in our own learning -- it is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Employers and workers alike should be aware of the fact that investing in one’s personal and professional development is just as important as investments made into pensions or lifetime savings. While people put away money for retirement, there's little to no effort made to contribute to future skills -- the very thing that will keep the economy productive and competitive.

With tech roles growing exponentially within companies, it’s unrealistic to think graduates with four-year degrees can fill all of the open positions. These same jobs can be performed by non-degree holding workers with specialized skills nurtured through alternative education paths – coding camps, online certification classes, training-on-employment and other types of vocational skilling. Community colleges are another great source of raw talent. Our new-collar workers will be individuals with backgrounds in diverse disciplines, with perspectives useful for tackling business challenges from every conceivable angle.

What’s required of talent these days is a mix of technical skills (coding, data science, etc.), soft skills (strong work ethic, high cognitive ability, etc.)  and holistic skills (such as problem-finding and empathy for users). These skills aren’t dependent on a college major, but on an ability to learn and operate with a set of continually improving contemporary skills. In fact, at Infosys, we challenge full stack developers, liberal arts experts and design talent to work together to build out digital solutions for our clients. - Rooting Out the Digital Skills Crisis

These are steps in the right direction towards taking action to reduce the digital skills gap. This is why we exist as a Learning Center

- Ibrahim Isaac